For such an influential and important partnership in my life, it began quite inauspiciously.
I was in day one of my new hire Boot Camp at Aprimo, a marketing software company. The instructor, Jennifer, was the Director of training as well as our instructor. She asked a question and my hand shot up. I gave a rambling answer.
“Uh, verbal vomit,” she replied with a sour look on her face.
Ouch.
I kept my hand down for the next few questions but then she was asking for feedback from the room on what makes a successful software deployment.
I said it was important that the users like the product.
She disagreed.
We sparred a bit on that one. I felt I was right.
The class was three weeks, and I was off to a crap start.
It would get better. Way better.
Jennifer wasn’t my direct manager, but since I was in the training practice, I reported through a dotted line on the org chart. I helped her with the practice whenever I could or was not in the field deploying the product.
My role was twofold in that I could play the consultant and then also deliver the training at the end of the project. Or I was assigned training on a project and parachute in and out. It was a highly specialized role as there were only a handful of people that had the title. #humblebrag
I picked up the product quickly and began working on large implementations. Jennifer asked me back to deliver some Boot Camp classes myself. I enjoyed delivering the new hire sessions where I was able to use my client experience which always garnered great feedback.
If you had to pinpoint an event where Jennifer and I became closer it was at one of our customer conferences in LA.
It was our first time in a social setting. We hung out in between sessions. I had to deliver one of them and it was pretty nerve-racking. Jennifer helped me with my presentation and it went well. The rest of the conference was a blast. We rented a theater for the awards ceremony and the band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was playing. Jen and I danced to their one hit wonder, Zoot Suit Riot.
When I joined Aprimo Jennifer had a reputation of being a stickler. In my opinion there were two reasons. First, she was a female in leadership and often she had to fight to hold her ground. I have worked for several amazing women in leadership and I never understood this school of thought.
Secondly, training was always one of the first things on the list to be chopped off. Or given away for free. Customers also always skimped on testing. These two phases of the project were the most important for adoption. So sales was always groveling to her asking for handouts or freebies.
We had an extensive set of training materials that required constant updating so that was a revenue stream that came from new clients. This was another area where I was recruited to help. Jennifer specialized in instructional design, which I never truly studied. My writing background from my journalism days came in handy, but I had to learn our style and also how to translate the development documentation into training language. We worked closely together on these documents and I learned so much.
Here’s what made her a great mentor:
Jennifer fostered my positive skills – my energy, positive attitude, product knowledge and my field experience. Sometimes I would call her to vent about a project going poorly. She would listen and sympathize but then start working with me to develop a solution. She listened to my ideas no matter how harebrained they were. There wasn’t any ego if I suggested changes to the practice. She always had time for me. I constantly observed her and how she worked with everyone across the organization, again an invaluable learning experience.
When I was in town she invited me over to her house one time for dinner. I met her husband and son. She had a gorgeous home, and they traveled to cool places. That was another source of inspiration, especially since my wife and I were just starting our life together.
I like to think that I had an impact on her as well. At our conference in Tampa, I invited her to our suite where we were hosting a get together, and she told me that, “I never get invited to the cool parties.”
The years flew by and we remained close. When we were expecting our first child, she gave me tons of great advice. She also had a daughter around the same time. We had many conversations about our kids as they grew up and what we wanted for them.
Whenever we attended conferences, we always had the best time catching up. We told war stories and laughed until our sides hurt.
When I couldn’t travel anymore, the company worked with me and created a job administering our learning management system. Jennifer was now my boss and I worked with her to deploy the system for our company and customers. We also had to work with the team to write and record about 100 training videos. I mostly worked remotely, but I would travel to Indianapolis periodically and get to work with her face-to-face.
Our last great adventure was a customer conference in London. We flew over a day early because I wanted to catch an Arsenal match. I conned her into going with me. After the conference, we toured London a little bit. We had drinks next to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We hit the Veuve Clicquot champagne bar at Harrod’s Department Store.
Eventually, the purchase of our company killed the culture and I made the excruciating decision to move on. It was tough to say goodbye to her after all we’d been through.
I took a job managing large projects for a talent management software company. I didn’t find my joy, but it was a job.
Then, in 2010, another former Aprimo colleague, Stu, referred me to a training director position. After several rounds of interviews, I got the job.
It was a brand-new training practice that I got to build from scratch. It was intimidating at first but then I thought about all of those years that Jennifer and I worked together. All of the lessons and growing pains. All of the successes and failures and what we did to correct those. And how rewarding it all was.
I also strived to be a good mentor to people I hired. Knowing how invaluable my time with her was and how it made me a better professional and person.
So this became my mantra: what would Jennifer do?
After all I had been around one of the best, it would stupid to ignore those lessons.
Jen rocks! This is a great story about how simple interactions all the way up to mentorships can create a more profound impact then we realize at the time. Also, you have completely hijacked WWJD. That is a little disturbing.
…and Disney in the rain! Loved this tribute to a great person!